Team meeting helps boost weary Kings

SACRAMENTO -- The meeting wouldn't have been remembered if nothing came of it, if the performance hadn't followed the words and the message hadn't sunk in as it did.

But in pulling off a surprising win over the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center on Sunday night, the Sacramento Kings made good on the promise they made to one another in a team sit-down the day before.

With players and coaches taking part at the team's practice facility, there was honesty about the ugliness that surrounded them: seven losses in eight games and a season heading where it went the year before when a spiritless team lost 17 of its last 22 under former coach Eric Musselman.

Kings coach Reggie Theus asked one pertinent question of his players: "Is this how you want to be remembered?"

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"Everybody was frustrated, and we got a lot of things off our chest," rookie center Spencer Hawes said. "That's what you've got to do sometimes.

"It's a long season. A lot of things can build up. Everyone talked. No one really argued. It was just people saying what needed to be said."

With little to play for but pride, the Kings spent much of the last two weeks playing so poorly, it seemed questionable if they had any left. This wasn't just losing, it was losing to the dregs of the league. And this, to anyone who tuned in all season, was the story of the 2007-08 Kings.

Recent roll-overs to the Clippers, Minnesota and Miami meant they lost 10 times to teams with winning percentages below .400. Contrarily, the 114-113 victory over the Lakers on Sunday reminded observers how good they can be against some of the NBA's best. The Kings have nine wins against teams with winning percentages of .625 or higher.

Theus -- whose team beat a Pacific Division opponent for the first time this season (1-9) -- brought his private challenge public while addressing the media after the Lakers' win.

"I just ask the same question for our guys: Can we get the same intensity against everybody?" Theus said. "That's the question."

TIP-INS -- Dwyane Wade will miss the remainder of the season so he can further rehabilitate his surgically repaired left knee, which has bothered him for about a year. He'll undergo a powerful shock-wave treatment this week and hopes he'll be pain free in time for next season. ... The private investors who are offering to participate in a $300 million KeyArena upgrade in hopes of saving pro basketball in the Seattle area have given the state Legislature a final plea and firm deadline. In a letter to Gov. Chris Gregoire and key legislators, the four prominent Seattle businessmen said the Legislature has until April 10 to approve $75 million in tax authority being requested from the state, or they're walking away from their offer of $150 million toward the renovations. ... All-Star forward Caron Butler (hip flexor) returned to practice for the Washington Wizards.